


Something Fateful

by semperama



Series: Tumblr Ficlets - Pinto [8]
Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Chance Meetings, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-11-29 12:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11440470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperama/pseuds/semperama
Summary: Chris is not expecting to see Zach when he walks into his audition.





	Something Fateful

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the prompt "unexpected reunion".

Chris hooks his sunglasses in the neck of his t-shirt and squints into the comparatively dim interior of the building. His stomach is already tying itself into anxious knots, and he thinks for the millionth time about how much he envies the Daniel Day Lewises and the Meryl Streeps of the world, the people whose talent is settled enough that they don’t have to go through this arduous process of auditions and call backs and reading for the same part over and over again. This is the fourth time Chris has been back here, the fourth time he has to read for this casting director. And while he knows that it’s a good sign that they keep calling him back, that does nothing to quell his anxiety. Auditions are the fucking worst.

A harried-looking assistent leads Chris to the right room without speaking to him once. She looks annoyed that he’s there at all, and Chris would tell her he agrees with her if he thought it would help. Instead he smooths down his hair, runs his hand across his beard, and pastes on his best smile just in time for the assistant to open the door to the audition room for him.

But a second later the smile slides right off his face.

“Zach!” Chris couldn't hide his shock if he wanted to. “What—”

“Chris, so good to see you!” says Tina, the casting director, cutting him off. “You know Zach, of course.”

Chris shakes her hand on autopilot, his eyes not leaving Zach for a second. Zach is sitting in one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs, slouching down with one foot balanced on top of the other, his knee jiggling side to side. He’s biting at his bottom lip and not-quite smiling and won’t meet Chris’s eyes straight on. Chris tries to think when the last time he saw him was. The last day of press for Star Trek Beyond, probably. More than a year ago now. There have been a few text messages in the interim, but there’s no question that they’ve been drifting apart, and with greater and greater momentum.

But now here they both are. Chris realizes he’s gaping and finally looks to Tina for an explanation.

“I know,” she says, wincing as if in sympathy. “We probably should have told you both sooner, but we wanted to make sure we were absolutely sure. We can’t cast the guys who played Kirk and Spock as love interests unless we were positive you weren’t going to come across as Kirk and Spock on screen.”

“You mean,” Chris stammers, “you mean Zach has been reading for the part of Peter?”

“Mhm,” Tina says. She circles back behind the little desk and motions for Chris to sit down. “And he’s by far our favorite. And you’re our favorite Rick. All that’s left to do is have you two read together and make sure it works.”

Chris falls into the chair next to Zach, takes a moment to compose himself, then looks over at him again. This time, Zach looks back at him and smiles a shy little smile. Chris’s heart beats against his ribcage. He almost puts a hand to his chest to try to hold it in.

“You okay with this?” he asks Zach quietly. He wishes they had a moment alone, but it would be weird to ask for that.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Zach says, and forces his smile wider.

Chris can already see it falling into place. Even though they haven’t read a single line together yet, he is suddenly filled with this bone-deep certainty that this is going to work, and it’s going to be amazing, and they are going to pull things out of each other that they’ve never experienced before. It unfolds in his mind’s eye like a premonition—late nights running lines, crashing in each other’s trailers, kissing for the cameras. This is going to be it for them. This is going to be the movie they’ve both been waiting for.

And no matter how strained things have been between them, no matter how bittersweet, Chris also realizes that it wouldn’t feel quite right to go through any of it with anyone other than Zach. It feels like he’s getting ready to jump out of a plane, and it’s going to be a long way down, but there is something fateful about it. Like every place where his path has crossed with Zach’s over the past decade was only leading them to this point.

He makes himself return Zach’s smile and gives his knee a quick pat, then reaches out to take a script off Tina’s desk.

“Alright, which scene are we reading?” he asks, rubbing the sweaty palm of one hand on his jeans.

“I thought we’d do the one where they first meet,” Tina says, already looking pleased, like she’s seen something she likes. “Go for it, whenever you’re ready.”

Chris opens the script and takes a deep breath, then turns his chair a little toward Zach, who does the same in return.

“Ready when you are,” he says. Zach holds his gaze for a beat, and then they begin.


End file.
